


In My Dreams

by MorganaNK



Category: Inspector Lynley - All Media Types, Inspector Lynley Mysteries (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-02 23:30:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11519775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorganaNK/pseuds/MorganaNK
Summary: Since she was shot, Barbara's nights haven't been the same.  Set between 'If Wishes Were Horses' and 'In Divine Proportion'





	In My Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Property of Elizabeth George and the BBC, no copyright infringement intended

Every night you visit me; sometimes in dreams, sometimes in nightmares.

I used to welcome the dreams, look forward to them in truth. Anything was possible because there were no self-imposed constraints, no limitations, no obstructions, no right or wrong. They were the place where you and I could stop hiding behind uncertainty and expected behaviour, a place where we could be honest and admit our feelings, where love could be declared without fear or ridicule, and we could just be us.

The nightmares are a different matter.

Before my shooting they were infrequent, a way of processing the horrors of the job. I could handle them, dismiss them as inconsequential, but not anymore. Now they have become so frequent that I am terrified to close my eyes.

They begin innocuously enough, before morphing and twisting into something far more insidious and macabre. Over and over, and in a multitude of gruesome and painful ways, death delights in stealing one of us away, and I wake, sweat soaked, screaming, heart racing, gasping for every breath, unsure of where I am. 

I fight sleep, scared of what will happen if I surrender. It is a pointless battle as exhaustion always beats me in the end. 

What was once a refuge is now my own personal hell.


End file.
